To this magazine during those years John McCrae contributed all his verse.
It was therefore not unseemly that I should have written to him,
when "In Flanders Fields" appeared in `Punch'. Amongst his papers
I find my poor letter, and many others of which something more might be made
if one were concerned merely with the literary side of his life
rather than with his life itself. Two references will be enough.
Early in 1905 he offered "The Pilgrims" for publication.
I notified him of the place assigned to it in the magazine,
and added a few words of appreciation, and after all these years
it has come back to me.

The letter is dated February 9th, 1905, and reads: "I place the poem
next to my own buffoonery. It is the real stuff of poetry.
How did you make it? What have you to do with medicine?
I was charmed with it: the thought high, the image perfect,
the expression complete; not too reticent, not too full.
Videntes autem stellam gavisi sunt gaudio magno valde.
In our own tongue, -- `slainte filidh'." To his mother he wrote,
"the Latin is translatable as, `seeing the star they rejoiced
with exceeding gladness'." For the benefit of those whose education
has proceeded no further than the Latin, it may be explained
that the two last words mean, "Hail to the poet".

To the inexperienced there is something portentous about an appearance
in print and something mysterious about the business of an editor.
A legend has already grown up around the publication of "In Flanders Fields"
in `Punch'. The truth is, "that the poem was offered in the usual way
and accepted; that is all." The usual way of offering a piece to an editor
is to put it in an envelope with a postage stamp outside to carry it there,
and a stamp inside to carry it back. Nothing else helps.